The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp improved such that a reflector of the vehicle lamp has no nonreflecting part in the peripheral region of the reflecting surface of the reflector, and the vehicle lamp has a good appearance viewed from the side, and also relates to a method of forming such a reflector.
In recent design of car shapes, a designer is requested to variously design the shape of the vehicle lamp in conformity with a shape of a car. An example of the rear combination lamp a for vehicles is illustrated in FIG. 15. The side faces of the rear combination lamp a when viewed horizontally are curved in conformity with the shape of a car. A tail and stop lamp b occupies the top of the rear combination lamp a. The front face of the lamp b is substantially triangular in shape. The side face thereof is also substantially triangular. The side face is curved to the side of the car.
FIG. 16 is a perspective view schematically showing the tail and stop lamp b. A major portion e of an outer lens d is greatly slanted with respect to the vertical direction. A peripheral wall f of the major portion e is curved from the major portion e to the side at a relatively large curvature.
A reflector g is substantially triangular when viewed from the front side, as shown in FIG. 17. A light source h is placed at the focal point of the reflecting surface of the reflector g. The reflecting surface takes the form of a paraboloid of revolution.
In the vehicle lamp thus constructed, most of the reflecting surface serves as an effective reflecting area. However, a peripheral part close to and along the shortest side of the reflector g does not contribute to the reflection of light. This peripheral part or nonreflecting part is denoted as i and shaded in FIGS. 16 and 17. Because of the presence of the nonreflecting part i, there is a limit in further improvement of the utilization of the luminous flux. Further, the nonreflecting part i impairs the appearance of the vehicle lamp.
FIG. 18 is a horizontal sectional view showing a main portion of the tail and stop lamp b, taken along a line horizontally extended at a level closer to the top of the lamp b. As shown, the peripheral part of the reflector g is bent to be shaped like L, thereby forming a nonreflecting part i. A lens mounting portion j, which is continuous to the nonreflecting part i, has a groove k. The edge portion of the peripheral wall f of the tail and stop lamp b is inserted into the groove k of the lens mounting portion j.
No light from the light source h irradiates the nonreflecting part i. The nonreflecting part i serves as a nonluminous part (shaded in the figure) when viewed from the side, as shown in FIG. 19. A boundary line l between the nonreflecting part i and the effective reflecting portion is not in harmony with a design line m of the outer lens d, in shape. Accordingly, the appearance of the lamp viewed from the side of the car is not attractive when the lamp is lit on.